St. Petersburg, Russia,
14
March
2016
|
12:00
Europe/Amsterdam

Toyota Motor Europe confirms that local production of the all-new RAV4 will start at Toyota Motor’s plant in St Petersburg in August 2016

  • The RAV4 will be built alongside Camry
  • Total production capacity of the plant increased from 50 to 100 thousand cars per year 
  • 800 additional jobs to be created 
  • Additional investment amounts to 7,1 billion Rubles (90,1 million Euros) to date
  • The new RAV4, produced for Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, will become the 9th model produced by Toyota in Europe

Toyota Motor’s plant in St. Petersburg, Russia will start producing the new Toyota RAV4 from August 2016 onwards.

Toyota Motor currently produces the Camry model for Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Today’s announcement of the start of production of the RAV4, the plant’s second model, is part of Toyota Motor Europe’s ever increasing local production’s philosophy to produce cars closer to where customers are, and to facilitate even timelier delivery of vehicles. This closely follows the announcement made 2 weeks ago of the start of production of the all-new Toyota C-HR at the Turkish plant, and its engines – at Deeside plant in United Kingdom, at the end of the year.

The vehicle will become the ninth model currently produced by Toyota in Europe, along with Avensis, Auris, Yaris, AYGO, Camry, Corolla, Verso and Toyota C-HR.

The additional investment in the plant to date amounts to 7.1 billion Rubles (90,1 million Euros), bringing the total investment in the plant to 18.2 billion Rubles (233 million Euros).

Preparations at the plant included enlargement of manufacturing shops, expansion of production lines, installation of new equipment in all shops, including automation of body welding line and installation of equipment to increase automation in assembly and stamping shops. Total production capacity was therefore doubled from 50 to 100 thousand cars per year.

The modernized production lines will enable to increase the conveyor speed by more than 2 – fold in May 2016. With this production volume increase, 800 new jobs will be created.

Commenting on the preparation of the plant for the Toyota RAV4‘s start of production, Executive Production Director of “Toyota Motor" Mr. Yoshinori Matsunaga said: "We have successfully completed the expansion project at the plant. All preparatory work is carried out according to the plan. We will keep producing cars of the highest quality for our customers."

Toyota’s confidence in the Russian market is once more confirmed by the decision to add a new production model to the plant in Saint-Petersburg. In 2015 the group’s total market share in Russia continued to grow steadily and reached a historical record of 7.5% (+ 0.1%) which allowed Toyota brand to become #1 among all Japanese automotive brands.

Mr. Hidenori Ozaki, President “Toyota Motor” commented: “The Russian automotive market remains one of the top priority markets for Toyota on global level. Despite the temporary volatile situation, our mid- and long-term strategy and plans in Russia remain unchanged. The start of production of the Toyota RAV4 is a key condition for Toyota’s sustainable development in Russia, as well as our contribution to the local economy and society”.